daft
/dɑːft/US/dæft/
daft adjective: foolish, silly, stupid.
Adjective
daft (comparative dafter, superlative daftest)
- Foolish, silly, stupid.
- a daft idea
- Thou art the daftest fuill that ever I saw. / Trows thou, man, be the law to get remeid / Of men of kirk? Na, nocht till thou be deid.1602, David Lyndesay [i.e., David Lyndsay], Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, in Commendation of Vertew and Vitvperation of Vyce (in Scots), Edinburgh: Printed be Robert Charteris, →OCLC; republished...
- Synonyms:
- asinine, balmy, barmy, bedaft, loony, derpy, dim-headed, dim-witted, dopey, dull-headed
- Crazy, insane, mad.
- "Ow, he is just a wood harum-scarum creature, that wad never take to his studies;—daft, sir, clean daft." / […] / "[W]owff—a wee bit by the East-Nook or sae; it's a common case—the ae half of the warld thinks t'other daft. I have met with folks in my day, that thought I was daft mysell;[…]" / "I...1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Darsie Latimer’s Journal, in Continuation. Sheet 2.”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London...
- The boy gathered himself up, shook his shaggy head, and, said, in a piteous tone: 'Davie's daft!' 'Davie's daft!' He then kicked the poor idiot till his cries attracted the attention of the guests, some of whom immediately came to the spot: […]1843 April, “The Vale of Glencoe: A Tale of Scotland”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXI, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Published by John Allen, […], →OCLC, page 339
- Gentle, meek, mild.
- There's mirth in the barn and the ha', the ha', / There's mirth in the barn and the ha': / There's quaffing and laughing, / And dancing and daffing; / And our young bride's daftest of a', of a', / And our young bride's daftest of a'.1825, “Who’s at My Window”, in Allan Cunningham, compiler, The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern; […] In Four Volumes, volume III, London: Printed for John Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 334
daft meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu
daft in Hindi
- daft
- पागल pāgal
daft in Marathi
- डॅफ्ट, डफ्ट, डाफ्ट
daft in Bengali
- বোকা, উদ্ভট, কাণ্ডজ্ঞানহীন, হাস্যকর
daft in Telugu
- డాఫ్ట్, డ్యాఫ్ట్, డఫ్ట్
More languagesFewer languages
- daft in Malayalam
- വിഡ്ഢിത്തമായ, അന്തഃസാരമില്ലാത്ത, അസംബന്ധമായ, സാമാന്യയുക്തിക്കു നിരക്കാത്ത
- daft in Kannada
- ಹೆಡ್ಡು, ಹುಚ್ಚು
- daft in Gujarati
- ડાફ્ટ, ડફ્ટ
- daft in Odia
- ଡାଫ୍ଟ, ଡଫ୍ଟ, ଡାଫ୍ଟ୍
- daft in Nepali
- डाफ्ट, डफ्ट, ड्याफ्ट
Examples of daft in a sentence
- Talk about moonbeams from cucumbers; the Taipings were even dafter than that.1985, George MacDonald Fraser, chapter 1, in Flashman and the Dragon: From the Flashman Papers, 1860, London: Collins Harvill, →ISBN...
- You haven't exactly been playing the master tactician through all this, but that seems the daftest course you could possibly have taken.1990, Iain Pears, The Raphael Affair, London: Gollancz, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Harper, 2014, →ISBN, page 22:
- I have met with folks in my day, that thought I was daft mysell;[…]" / "I cannot make out a word of his cursed brogue," said the Cumbrian justice; "can you, neighbour—eh?1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Darsie Latimer’s Journal, in Continuation. Sheet 2.”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James...
Synonyms of daft
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of daft
| comparative | dafter |
|---|---|
| superlative | daftest |
Origin of daft
From Middle English dafte, defte (“gentle; having good manners; humble, modest; awkward; dull; boorish”), from Old English dæfte (“accommodating; gentle, meek, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *daftī (“fitting, suitable”). Related to Old English dafnian, dafenian (“to be fitting, appropriate, or becoming”), Russian до́брый (dóbryj, “good”). Doublet of deft. Compare silly which originally meant “blessed; good, innocent; pitiful; weak”, but now means “laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance; mentally simple, foolish”. Unrelated to, though perhaps influenced by, daff (“fool (n.); to be foolish (v.)”) (past form daffed).
Words formed from daft
Phrases with daft
Words that rhyme with daft
Questions about daft
- What does daft mean?
- Daft means foolish, silly, stupid.
- What is daft in Hindi?
- Daft in Hindi is पागल (pāgal). See Daft meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use daft in a sentence?
- Talk about moonbeams from cucumbers; the Taipings were even dafter than that.
- What part of speech is daft?
- Daft is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce daft?
- Daft is pronounced /dɑːft/ (UK).
Words near daft in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: daft (page history and authors); पागल (Hindi) (page history and authors); daft (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); Daft (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); daft (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); daft (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); daft (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); daft (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); daft (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); daft (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-daft.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-daft.wav.
Cite this entry: “daft.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/daft. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.